(Non)Learning Racial Literacy in and Outside of the History Classroom

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this symposium, we seek to interrogate the relationship between racial literacy (Guinier, 2004) and history education both in the K-12 classroom and at public historical sites. As opposed to focusing on the interpersonal aspects of racism, racial literacy focuses largely on the structural dimensions of racism, making the connection between race and power. While history classroom appears to be an ideal place to help students gain racial literacy, the majority of educational research dealing with racial literacy has focused on English classrooms, and very little of this work has centered the teaching and learning of history. We seek to explore when, how, and if, students are able to gain racial literacy while engaging with history.

Sub Unit

• Division C - Learning and Instruction / Division C - Section 1b: Humanities and Social Sciences

Chair

• Beth C. Rubin, Rutgers University

Papers

• Distorted Histories: Understand the Whiteness Curriculum Presented at Public Sites - Karen L.B. Burgard, Texas A&M University - San Antonio

• The Refusal to Learn: Marronage Beyond Recognition in the History Classroom - Tadashi Dozono, California State University - Channel Islands

• Is All Experiential Learning Good? On Plantation Field Trips and Racial Literacy - Kristen Duncan, Clemson University

• Curricular Acknowledgment: Perspectives of Muslim Minority Students - Natasha Hakimali Merchant, University of Washington Bothell

Discussant

• Beth C. Rubin, Rutgers University